Wild cheers echoed throughout City Hall and other spots where proponents had gathered Thursday morning awaiting the opinion, which came on a 4-3 vote.

The case stems from challenges to state law by gay couples who were married in ceremonies at San Francisco City Hall in 2004, when Mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

While going through files in preparation for the move north in three weeks (Yay!!), I came across a letter to the editor I wrote which was published in the September 5th, 2005 edition of the Vancouver Sun.

The letter was written commenting on the then on-going turmoil over the US/Canada softwood lumber negotiations. Part of it reads:

If the Canadian government does not demand the return of the money collected for softwood lumber tariffs, the U.S. government will continue to violate agreements unless there are repercussions. The arrogance and heavy-handedness the Bush administration practices in international affairs embarrasses many intelligent Americans. The only things these people understand are money, power and most importantly, oil.

With that in mind, a heavy tax levied on Canadian oil exports would have a major impact and might get their attention. After, all, there are plenty of other countries that would be more than happy to buy Canadian petroleum products.

Why do I bring this up today? Well, also in the Vancouver Sun - today's edition - there is an article referencing the aforementioned softwood lumber deal. Guess what? Now the US looks to be "fine-tuning" the deal to the chagrin of Canadians.

U.S. ties Canadian lumber exporters in red tape

Congress passes bill that will make life even harder for ailing forestry industry.

Gordon Hamilton -Vancouver Sun - Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The U.S. Congress passed a bill Wednesday that could wrap Canadian lumber imports in red tape and has the potential to impose limits beyond the restrictions already in the softwood lumber agreement.

The new legislation, added onto an unrelated farm bill by politicians sympathetic to the U.S. lumber lobby, requires importers to certify that all taxes have been paid on the lumber they receive. The bill includes enforcement measures, including intrusive company audits, penalties and fines.

The bill can add cost, waste time and give the Americans "a political weapon" in the lumber trade that it didn't have before, B.C. Council of Forest Industries president John Allan said Wednesday.

_______________

Washington trade lawyer Elliott Feldman said the Americans have, for the first time in the 25-year-long dispute, written softwood lumber into their legislation. He described it as a flagrant breach of the 2006 softwood lumber agreement, under which Canada monitors exports and collects the appropriate tax.

_______________

International Trade Minister David Emerson was not commenting Monday on the U.S. bill, however, the Canadian embassy in Washington is writing the U.S. administration on the issue.

'Ya need to watch who you're kissin' up to, stevie. Many times it comes back to bite 'ya in the ass.

Why do I have this uncontrollable urge to call MP David Emerson and PM stevie harper and loudly scream: "I Told 'Ya So, You Morons!"

Ottawa — Canada's new defence strategy will cost up to $50-billion over two decades – $20-billion more than what the Harper government announced earlier this week – one of the country's top generals said Wednesday as the military scrambled to quell criticism that the plan lacks sufficient detail.

Lieutenant-General Walter Natynczyk, Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff, said the military would spend between $45-billion and $50-billion on planes, combat vehicles, ships and fighters under the Canada First Defence Strategy, the Conservative government's plan for the military that was originally released Monday without comprehensive details.

_______________

Mr. Harper's office has exerted stronger control over the Department of Defence's communications in recent months, particularly after the treatment of detainees captured by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan made headlines.

stevie has to be receiving "A's" in the "Follow the bush-league Model of Incompetence" course he's enrolled in.

My gawd. Not only does he make incredibly stupid moves to ruin Canada's image worldwide, he also has no grasp of how to pay for his actions.

Just like georgie: Let future generations pick up the tab for a "legacy" of military stupidity . . . .

There's been wide coverage of a study showing that man-masturbation prevents prostate cancer. But before you take your hotdog in hand (if you happen to be of the schlong persuasion), let's expand the conversation and declare: hot sex is good for humans.

Heart

There, I've said it. But looking around, I'm certainly not the only one saying it. In fact, the bigwigs at Forbes Magazine -- premiere reading for the wealthy and their admirers -- devoted pages and pages to the benefits of sex. Among other treats, they relate that in a 2001 study at Queen's University (Belfast), higher rates of bonking produced half the risk of heart attack and stroke.

________________

Pain

Lots of studies indicate that the various hormones connected with arousal and excitement -- so intoxicating that people are now said to become "addicted" to sex -- are fabulous pain relievers. Migraines? Arthritis? Why, just get laid. Dr. Beverly Whipple from Rutgers University says that even whiplash can be relieved by the oxytocin surge -- leading to the release of morphine-like endorphins -- that people often experience during serious groping.

_______________

Sniffles

A study from Pennsylvania's Wilkes University, "claims that individuals who have sex once or twice a week show 30% higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A, which is known to boost the immune system." In short, no more sniffles and sneezes for those who are busy wearing out the sheets. Or the kitchen tabletop. Or the back seat of a Studebaker.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

VILNIUS — The Austrian national rugby team tried to get over their 48-0 defeat by Lithuania by staging a mass striptease in the capital Vilnius late on Saturday, only to find they had been caught on video and put on the Internet.

The video, put out by a blogger on social community website Virb and then taken up by the Lithuanian news portal Delfi, showed a group of 20 men singing and stripping off their clothes on a street in central Vilnius, while people in a nearby bar clapped and cheered.

“Yes, these were the men we played against on Saturday ... I guess the defeat could have prompted them to do that,” Lithuanian rugby federation President Aleksandras Makarenka told Reuters.

Delfi quoted the Vilnius police chief as saying stripping in public could be considered an act of hooliganism – but by then the Austrian team had gone home.

The link to the video is here near the bottom of the page. I'm sure you'll find it.

Friday, May 02, 2008

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Canadian captured in Afghanistan at age 15 can be tried for murder in the Guantanamo war crimes court, a U.S. military judge ruled in rejecting claims that he was a child soldier who should be rehabilitated rather than prosecuted.

Canadian prisoner Omar Khadr, now 21, is charged in the Guantanamo court with throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002.

His military lawyer, Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, had argued in February hearings at the Guantanamo naval base that Khadr was a child soldier illegally conscripted by his father, an al Qaeda financier. He urged the judge to drop the charges, which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, issued a ruling on Wednesday agreeing with prosecutors' position that the law authorizing the Guantanamo trials contained no minimum age.

Brownback's ruling clears the way for Khadr to be tried in the special tribunals created by the Bush administration to try non-U.S. captives it considers "unlawful enemy combatants" outside the regular civilian and military courts.

Kuebler called the ruling "an embarrassment to the United States" and said Canada would share in the embarrassment if it allows its citizen to be tried at Guantanamo. He said Khadr would be the first child soldier tried for war crimes in modern history.

What is the chance that members of bushco will face war crimes charges?

Not as good as Khadr being found guilty in this kangaroo court is my bet . . . .